Even though they may not seem to be much, I remember telling myself that if a job hired me, I would take it, any job. And since I’ve been back in Miami I’ve been trying all types of jobs, mostly administrative or creative and none have ever called me back.
Now that these two jobs have said Yes to me, I’m gonna work them like thanking God for provision. Honestly, I’ve learned so much about myself through all of the people I meet and I get to smile and make people feel good all day and all night, that pleases me.
Usually before I go to each job I set a goal for myself. At Denny’s I’ll say “I want to make $100 tonight.” I haven’t done it yet, but it gives me a reason to give extra special service. I’m going for the $10 tip. When I get that, I know I’ve done something right. I’m sure I could make more money at another restaurant and I’ll probably do that later but for now I’ll brush up my skills here. I still have to get better at etiquette. I always forget to bring the food out in stages.
I’ll bring out the soup, salad and the entree all at the same time! LOL! No one complains but as I serve the food I’ll realize how full the table looks. ~smile~
I love making people feel good. I give such excellent service that customers go to my manager and compliment me. They tell me I need to be working at a better restaurant. That makes me laugh. The crazy part is working overnight and serving all the drunk people and the people that just came from the club. The couples are all over each other kissing and rubbing. The drunk girls all tell you how much they love you and will love you even more if you can make their food come faster.
I even had a table full of teenagers to come in, order a bunch of food and then run out of the restaurant. It scared me at first, my heart was beating fast. But honestly as soon as they sat down I could sense that they were going to do that. I went and told my manager that I suspected it, but as soon as he turned his back, and I went to check on some other food, they ran out of there like lightening!
That’s crazy!
And at my other job, I get to learn so much. It’s a stand on your feet type of job and no one is standing over your shoulder telling you what to do. I have made so many mistakes but I still get congralulated because I’m trying. I am doing well actually- A lot better than most new people. I’ve already gotten 4 families to agree to listen and usually I hear it takes more than a month before a new person gets a family to say yes.
There are 2 top Black marketers who are well known for getting multiple families a day. WHile I’m out there and I’m talking to people I’ll see them walk by with a family and then a short time later, another family and then another. They are so good at it that they make so much money for 6 hours of work per day.
They will come up to me and just give me a random tip. “Lose the notebook, you look like you’re trying to sell something.” or “Don’t ask a question like, ‘Have you heard about our promotion?’ Ofcourse they’re gonna say No and they won’t want to stop. Ask a question like, ‘You and your family want to ride the boat for free? I have free tickets!”
I tried it and it does work better.
All day long I’m walking up to strangers and engaging them in conversation. At first I was nervous because I don’t like to question people because I believe that their business is their business and I really have no concern about how others live their lives, but I’ve gotten better at keeping a conversation going and getting them to bond with me.
First you ask them where they are from and when they tell you, you can try to remember something you know about that place and ask a question about that. Or you find out what they are interested in by listening to the way they speak about things and you can form a question from that and then…just listen. People love to talk. The people who are the best conversationalists listen more than they speak. People don’t realize that but I did when someone complimented me on my conversation skills. I was like, “But I didn’t say anything I just asked the right questions.”
When I meet people from Turks & Caicos I always ask them what they think about the Lisa Raye situation. One man told me that on the Island the rumors are that she beats him up but on the American news they are reporting the opposite. They think she is setting him up.
When I met one family of women I didn’t know what to ask them to keep them talking to me so I asked them about keeping a close bond in your family. “How do you have such a good relationship with your daughter?” I asked.
“Well, most of the time when there’s a problem between a mother and daughter it’s the mother’s fault. She leads the relationship. Some mothers don’t want to recognize that their daughter is a seperate person from them and they can’t control her life. I let my daughter be herself and I respect her.”
It’s a mall atmosphere so sometimes when it’s raining no one is there and all of the people who work at the different booths all mingle and shoot the breeze. Sometimes we’ll advertise for each other. Like, If I’m talking to a family I’ll tell the kids to go look at the live alligators, which helps the alligator people because they can try to sell the family a picture.
We all sell the same things everyday and sometimes when its slow it feels like we are competing for customers but we still try to make the experience exciting because each tourist is experiencing it for the first time. There’s a girl who braids hair and each time she has a customer I’ll go over to them and tell the girl how pretty her hair is and how I’ve never seen the hair braider do a better job.
And the cool thing is– my Spanish is improving so much. I can have a whole conversation in Spanish because more than half of my co workers do not speak English.
I have a speech I give to get people listening to me and I’ve learned how to say it in Spanish too.
“Hola Famila! Que bonita la familia. Vacaciones gratis para tus familia! El boate gratis para todos! Las casas de los millionaires! Shaquille O’Neal! Puff Daddy! Gloria Estefan! Muchos buenas casas!”
They just laugh at me usually and said, “No thanks.”
Then I’ll say, “Oh you speak English. How did you like my Spanish?”
“You’re good. Keep practicing!”
Yeah, even if the family doesn’t want to listen to me I still compliment them or tell them to have a great vacation. I’ll say, “Enjoy Miami!” They walk away smiling and laughing.
I like leaving people feeling good about themselves.
In everything that I do, well, most of the time I try to follow that rule- Leave people feeling better than they did before they met up with you.
Well, I’m trying. ~smirk~